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Chandigarh drug control officer surrenders in bribery case
Sent in three-day police custody after being booked for demanding ₹25,000 bribe from a Dhanas-based chemist to issue a drugs licence
A drug control officer, Sunil Chaudhary, surrendered before a Chandigarh court on Thursday and was remanded in three-day police custody.
Chaudhary was booked for demanding ₹25,000 bribe from a Dhanas-based chemist to issue a drugs licence despite violations.
In September 2023, the drug control officer and middleman Ashok Narula, a resident of Sector 63, were booked under Sections 7, 8 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Chaudhary’s two bail pleas, one in the lower court and another in the Punjab and Haryana high court, were dismissed following which he moved the Supreme Court. But on January 29, the apex court dismissed his anticipatory bail application with a direction to him to surrender within three weeks.
Following the Supreme Court order, Chaudhary surrendered before the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM). He was taken into custody by police at 1pm. While police sought seven day’ custody, the court granted them three days.
A conduit, who met the complainant to collect ₹25,000 as the first instalment on the officer’s behalf, was caught red-handed by the UT vigilance department in September last year.
A drug control officer oversees drug regulation, ensuring compliance with laws, quality control, licensing and consumer safety through inspections and enforcement actions. Chandigarh has three such drug control officers who report to the Union Territory’s director, health services.
According to vigilance officials, the duo was booked on the complaint of Dev Sharan Saha, who runs an orthopaedic surgical shop at Bansal Complex, near Gram Sampark, Dhanas. Saha complained that around a month ago, Chaudhary and Narula visited his shop for inspection before processing his drugs licence file.
Chaudhary claimed there were many shortcomings in the shop and said it would be sealed, after which he took Saha’s signature on a paper.
Narula then offered to get his file approved in exchange for ₹1 lakh and assured that his shop would not be sealed.
When Saha expressed his inability to pay the amount, he said Narula brought down the demand to ₹80,000 and asked him to visit his office in Sector 20 with the money.
But he was unable to arrange the amount, so he visited Chaudhary at his office in Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, where Narula was also present.
Saha alleged that he appealed to Chaudhary that he was not in a position to pay ₹80,000, but the official refused to reduce the amount.
The chemist then approached the vigilance police station in Chandigarh. The vigilance cell laid a trap and caught Narula red-handed accepting ₹25,000 as the first instalment. He is out on bail at present.
